Briefs

Local & VCU

State could face $1 billion budget gap, House committees learn

Members of the House of Delegates’ money committees were told on Tuesday that the state could face a roughly $1 billion budget gap over the next two years despite increasing revenues.

House Appropriations Committee staff director Robert P. Vaughn told members gathered for a two-day retreat that there could be a shortfall of between $885 million and $1.5 billion for the 2013-14 biennium in part because of cost-drivers including Medicaid, updated K-12 school costs and state pension contribution rates.

Gov. Bob McDonnell has signaled an austere budgeting process. In preparing his first two-year budget, which he will present to lawmakers in December, he has sought to find possible savings in two ways. He is using work groups to propose targeted savings in the state’s costliest programs and asking agency leaders to suggest cuts for fiscal year 2013 and 2014 equal to 2 percent, 4 percent and 6 percent of their current general fund appropriation.

Vaughan’s staff shared some of those proposed reductions but noted that the agencies and programs involved comprise about 25 percent of the general fund budget. The recommendations range from eliminating positions to closing facilities to increasing fees for state park services.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Children’s Museum of Richmond plans to open location in Chesterfield

Thanks to a generous donation from a local couple, the Children’s Museum of Richmond will be able to open a branch in Chesterfield County next year.

George and Cindy Harrison of Richmond made an unspecified six-figure gift for the satellite museum through their Mary Anderson Harrison Foundation.

“We believe in the importance of early childhood education and have the highest regard for the Children’s Museum of Richmond and their mission,” said George Harrison, speaking for the foundation.

“We were impressed with the success of the Short Pump location,” he said in a statement, “and were pleased to help bring the museum to families south of the James.”

Opened a year ago, the popularity of the Short Pump branch encouraged the nonprofit learning center for young children to consider a satellite in fast-growing Chesterfield.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Monument Avenue area closing ahead for movie filming

Part of the Monument Avenue area is closing to traffic this week in connection with the filming of the Steven Spielberg movie about Abraham Lincoln.

Weather permitting, Monument Avenue will close to traffic from Thursday through Sunday between Grace Street and Park Avenue to the north and south and Allen and Davis avenues on the east to west.

That slice of Monument happens to be bookended by the monuments of Gen. Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

Film representatives met Fan District Association members in October to discuss plans for the shoot, which some believe will recreate Lincoln riding in a carriage down Washington’s Pennsylvania Avenue.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National & International

Alleged gunman shot by police at UC Berkeley dead

An alleged gunman who was shot by police on the University of California, Berkeley campus died at a hospital hours after the confrontation, a university spokesman said Wednesday.

The man was an undergraduate transfer student in his early 30s who was attending classes at the Haas School of Business, spokesman Dan Mogulof said.

University officials said a female staff member saw a man carrying what appeared to be a gun in an elevator at the business school after 2 p.m. on Tuesday. The staff member called police at 2:17 p.m., saying she saw the man remove the gun from a backpack.

Police officers tracked the suspect into a Haas computer room. The suspect raised the gun and was shot by an officer at about 2:22 p.m., roughly five minutes after the initial call, according to the school.

At the time, four students were between the officer and the suspect, UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said Tuesday. None of the students was hurt.

Shortly before 3 p.m., the university issued a campus alert about the shooting to students, saying “everything was under control.” Another at 3:03 p.m. said one suspect was in custody.

It was the first shooting since the 1980s on the campus, police said.

Brief by The Associated Press

Cain vows clear foreign policy after Libya lapse

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sought to sharpen his grasp on national security and foreign policy while campaigning in Iowa Tuesday, a day after botching his answer to a question about his support for the U.S. role in Libya.

On his first trip to Iowa since decade-old sexual harassment allegations surfaced, Cain indirectly addressed the foreign policy problem by telling more than 200 people at a northeastern Iowa restaurant that the U.S. needed to leave no doubt about its allies and enemies.

Cain commented a day after he hesitated during an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board, first saying he disagreed with President Barack Obama’s decision to back Libyan rebels, then adding that he likely would have done the same.

A Cain aide later blamed the episode on lack of sleep. But Cain told reporters Tuesday that the apparent reversal was the result of his own contemplative process.

“The Libya comment was a pause to gather my thoughts. I’m not going to back down from that,” Cain told reporters. “Remember, if you were being asked seven, eight different questions on seven, eight different topics, and then all of a sudden someone switches to Libya, and they are not clear with the question, before I shoot from the lip, I gather my thoughts. That’s all that was.”

Brief by The Associated Press

EU decides not to cut food aid program for poor

The European Union broke a political deadlock Monday and extended for two years a 500 million ($680 million) food program that benefits 18 million of its poorest citizens.

Without such an agreement, the program would have ended Jan. 1.

Six nations had blocked the funding extension, with many saying the program should be funded by individual nations, not from EU coffers. The battle over the funding extension had raised outrage among charities in Europe that rely heavily on the handouts to keep soup kitchens going. Last year, the European Federation of Food Banks received 51 percent of its food from the program.

Brief by The Associated Press